


you said you were making time

by callabang



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, M/M, Time Travel, Trope Subversion/Inversion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 12:16:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22741249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callabang/pseuds/callabang
Summary: TK wakes up in the future. He’s wearing a ring.
Relationships: Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick
Comments: 34
Kudos: 191





	you said you were making time

**Author's Note:**

> Many months ago I started thinking about time travel, and it occurred to me that time traveling would not feel materially different from waking up with amnesia. I wanted somebody else to write this fic but unfortunately nobody did, so: here we are. Please heed the tags! This is feelings-hurty material!
> 
> Title from "Boy from the North" by Monica Heldal.

TK wakes up in the future. 

It takes him a second to realize it, obviously. At first he’s mostly just thinking, like,  _ Where am I? _ , and,  _ Who is laying next to me? _ , but after he sits up and looks around it all starts to make a little bit more sense. 

He’s in a pretty nice bedroom, all tasteful grey curtains and framed photos on the walls. The bed is huge, with just the right amount of firmness, and sprawled out next to him, t-shirt all twisted up around his torso, is Patty.

Or, well, kind of. It’s definitely Patty, TK would know his profile anywhere, but he looks— older. His jaw is a touch more angular, his hair is longer, and, most tellingly, he has two unfamiliar tattoos stretching the length of his forearm. 

Quietly, without waking him (not a difficult task, since Patty sleeps like the fucking dead), TK slips out of the bed and pads to a door which ends up leading to a bathroom. It’s lighter in here, and without the heavy curtains of the bedroom the morning sunlight streams in. TK scrubs his knuckles over his eyes and looks in the mirror and — yeah, somehow, he looks older too.

It’s not, like, the biggest change in the world. His face got a lot more definition when he started playing for the Flyers and eating according to a diet plan, and there are no new tattoos immediately visible, but he can still tell. There’s a little scar above his eyebrow that he doesn’t recognize, for one, and one of his front teeth is chipped, just a little but enough to change the way his smile looks. And he just — feels different, than he did when he went to bed last night. It’s strange, how his reflection is almost but not exactly right. 

Last night he and Patty took turns jerking each other off and then collapsed into Patty’s bed to sleep. He’d planned to take advantage of their first off day in a while, sleep in, maybe get some brunch. And now he’s — well, in the future.

Maybe someone else would be panicking by now, but TK has never really been the type to panic. He’s in the future, but everything seems okay. Patty is right outside, and he can wake him up and they’ll figure it out.

He brushes his teeth, because why not, using the electric toothbrush that he assumes is his (Patty won’t admit that he hates electric toothbrushes because they make his tongue feel weird, but TK has cottoned on), and then his eyes catch on the photograph hung on the little expanse of wall near the sink.

It’s black and white, a photograph of TK and Patty in nice suits, standing together in a building he doesn’t recognize. TK is grinning full out, and Patty is making that face he makes when he wants to smile but is trying to pretend he still has some dignity intact. Patty is wearing Vans with his suit, that shithead.

TK reaches out to touch it, maybe take it off the wall to get a closer look, when he catches sight of his own hand and he realizes.

He’s wearing a ring. 

It’s not metal; instead it’s made of black silicone, one of those rings like G got after he married Ryanne, so he wouldn’t have to take it off to play. Everyone made the appropriate noises of disgust when he had first bought it, but TK had always thought it was kind of sweet.

So: TK is in the future, and TK is  _ married.  _

He doesn’t know where he is exactly, or what year it is, or if he’s still playing (although the bruise he can feel pulling at his hipbone would indicate yes), but he’s married to Patty and they apparently wake up together, so it doesn’t actually, like, matter.

He’s just realizing he should probably check his phone for the date (Patty would definitely chirp him for not thinking of that first — “You’re like an old man, sometimes, I swear to God”), when Patty stirs slightly from where he’s still laying, stretched across way more than his half of the bed.

TK doesn’t really think, just clambers up on the bed until he can fling himself on top of Patty and talk directly into his mouth. Patty makes a groaning noise when TK maybe elbows him in the side, and then TK gets to watch him blink himself grumpily into wakefulness.

“Patty, I have to tell you something,” he says, and Patty tries to get an arm up to scrub across his eyes but he’s kind of pinned under TK. 

“Oh, sorry,” TK says, shifting back a little, and then, “When I went to bed it was 2020 but I time traveled and now I’m here and we’re married.”

Patty looks at him in abject confusion and also irritation. He doesn’t seem as tickled by the whole scenario as TK is, but he also just woke up so that’s par for the course.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he asks. TK’s hair is all hanging down in his face and he squints irritatedly, which as usual makes TK’s heart just absolutely sing.

“I time traveled and now we’re married!” TK says again, like, keep up, dude, and Patty does the squinty thing again and shoves TK off him.

“Go make me some tea or something while I brush my teeth,” he says, swinging around to get up. “I’m not awake enough for whatever this is.”

“Got it,” TK says, watching as Patty jams his feet into moccasins and stumbles over to the bathroom. Tea. He can do that.

TK very heroically does not get sidetracked exploring the rest of the house — their house? — except for what exploring is necessary to locate the kitchen. He turns on the hot water kettle and digs through the cabinet to find what kind of tea Nolan likes. It’s kind of weird, not knowing that already.

There’s a bunch of boxes in there, which kind of makes sense. The last TK checked Nolan had stopped drinking coffee as a way to maybe combat the migraines, so maybe they’re a tea household now. He picks out one that smells good and has something called “valerian” in it, and the water is just boiling by the time Patty makes it downstairs. He’s still in his pajamas and moccasins, but he’s added a beanie and also looks like he still wants to be in bed. He takes a seat at the island, and TK slides the mug over, watching the movement of Patty’s throat as he takes a few sips. 

Finally he puts the mug down, rubs his eyes again, and, with an air of resignation, says, “Okay, what?”

TK is practically vibrating.

“When we went to bed last night it was 2020, and I don’t know what year it is right now but I’m pretty sure it’s the future. And we live together and we’re married, you have to tell me everything.”

Patty doesn’t look excited, which isn’t too surprising. But he also doesn’t look interested, or intrigued, or confused. In fact, it takes TK a few moments to realize, but he actually looks kind of— scared. 

TK didn’t really… expect that. He feels unsettled, a sinking feeling spreading through his gut.

“You think… that this is the future?” Patty asks. He’s sitting really still. 

TK doesn’t understand what’s wrong, even though obviously something is. “Yes? What year is it?”

“It’s 2028,” Patty answers.

“Okay, so, the future,” TK says, confused. “I woke up eight years in the future.”

“No,” Patty says, slowly, “You woke up in the present. Because we went to bed last night, together, and now it’s today, and you’re here.”

TK doesn’t like the way Patty is looking at him. He can see from here that Patty’s nervous, that he’s working himself up to something, but it isn’t— this isn’t a scary thing. He doesn’t feel scared, and Patty shouldn’t either. He has to make Patty understand.

“Patty, I know it sounds crazy, okay, but I just— I know, okay? I felt it as soon as I woke up.”

Patty just looks at him blankly, and that’s not an improvement, so TK keeps going. “It’s not a big deal, we’ll just— wait, and see what happens, or try to send me back maybe, but it’s, not, like—,”

He stops, because now Patty’s face is doing something awful. He stands, and takes a deep breath, rubbing his hands across his face, and TK aches to touch him, to make him relax. 

“I can’t— I can’t just, like,  _ accept _ that you  _ time traveled. _ God, TK, that’s, like, that’s insane!”

“It’s not insane,” TK says, kind of desperately, like if he keeps talking he can bring Patty back from the edge, make him stop looking so freaked out, “It’s not insane, it’s—,”

“Travis,” Patty says, deadly serious, and TK closes his mouth so abruptly he almost bites his tongue. “We have to go, like to a doctor. If you don’t remember the past— the past eight years, we have to go to a doctor.”

TK swallows, tries to think. It was stupid of him, he knows, to think that Patty would just— get it. Patty gets most things, but this thing really does sound crazy, and, it’s occurring to him now, taking in the way that Patty’s hands are shaking and he’s gone white to the lips, that Patty might have a particularly good reason to be especially careful with, well. Brain stuff.

“Okay,” TK says, willing himself to stay calm. He can usually manage that, for Patty. They’ll be useless if they’re both freaking out. “Okay. It will be okay. We can go to a doctor, that’s fine? Get some— some scans, or whatever. And you’ll see that nothing’s wrong with me, and I’m fine, and I really did time travel. You’ll see, and you won’t have to worry.”

Patty’s eyes are wet, and he looks almost defeated, mouth a sharp line of misery across the kitchen table. His arms are folded and he has his eyes fixed steadfastly on his own feet.

“Patty. Nolan,” TK says, waiting for him to look up, and then he picks his way around the table to finally give him a hug. The way Patty leans into him is familiar, and so is the way he melts when TK reaches up and gets a hand on the back of his neck. “It’s okay. You’ll see.”

Patty doesn’t say anything, but he nods mutely into his neck. 

They stand there for a while, TK doesn’t keep track of how long. He feels rather than sees the way Patty takes a deep breath, like he’s steeling himself, and draws himself upright.

“Okay,” he says, and takes TK’s hand. “We’ll see.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have many thoughts on this universe and I'd love to talk about them, either in the comments or on [twitter](https://twitter.com/callabang_). Swing by :)


End file.
